S42.E04: Tom Hanks / Lady Gaga

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Hosted by Tom Hanks; musical performances by Lady Gaga

[JZL]

Wow, Hanks is doing another Da Vinci Code movie?  Didn't the first two get trashed?

Considering how bad Sully was, this could be a lousy year for him.  : (

[ottoDbusdriver]

1 hour ago, JZL said:

Wow, Hanks is doing another Da Vinci Code movie?  Didn't the first two get trashed?

Considering how bad Sully was, this could be a lousy year for him.  : (

Early reviews aren't good -- Inferno is currently at 23% on Rottentomates.com based on 60 reviews.

By comparison, the Da Vinci Code came in at 25% (8% among top critics) while Angels and Demons came a little better at 37% (34% among top critics).
By even further comparison, Sully is at 82% on Rottentomatoes.

[vb68]

Excited for the show tonight.  I'd love to see Mr. Short-Term Memory!

[Galileo908]

23 minutes ago, vb68 said:

Excited for the show tonight.  I'd love to see Mr. Short-Term Memory!

Wow, Tony Randall! 

[SoSueMe]

Well, GaGa really should talk to her wardrobe people.

[Galileo908]

Cold Open: Tom Hanks is Chris Wallace! Yeah, couldn't avoid this debate even if we tried. Yeah, love the footage of literally the entire world laughing at Trump saying he respects women.

Monologue: Good to have you back, Tom. It's been a hell of a year, and it's been a long time since the last time he's hosted. Speaking of droughts, both the Cubs and the Indians are in the World Series this year. Wild, eh? God, I loved Tom giving America a Dad Talk.

Black Jeopardy: I knew from the preview that Tom Hanks was on as a Trump supporter that this was gonna be amazing. And it was. And yeah, I laughed every time Kenan freaked out at him getting questions right. Only he could've pulled this role off. Got a huge kick out of "The Good Chair. Because Granddaddy needs a place to sit."

"These Lives Matter." Yep, choked on my water when they went there. 

Halloween Show: Once again, only Tom Hanks could've pulled this off. Stupid, but they really committed to it.

Broken: CBS tries to win awards back from those "Comedies that aren't really funny, but well written" like Veep and Transparent, with "hilarious" results. This would fit in well with those. 

100 Floors of Frights: Stupidly funny. God I could listen to Tom Hanks talking in stupid voices all day. Great payoff, and just when it was starting to get lame.

WU: American Horror Story: Debates is over, but there's only one more episode after this before the election is over and they're not letting this material go anytime soon. Loved seeing the return of That Girl At A Party You Wish You Didn't Start A Conversation With.

Sully: Love seeng Sully being Jealous. The second Alec Baldwin walked in I figured that's where it was going but I loved it.

A Girl's Halloween: I've witnessed nights like this. This was great.

America's Funniest Pets: "Tom Hanks impersonates Ron Howard hosting a pet bloopers show." The fact that this is all the way at 12:55 shows how strong this show is. Weaker episodes would've had this up first. We've seen these French women commentating on pet videos before, haven't we? (UPDATE: They showed up in the Adam Driver episode). "This cat is waiting for his deadbeat dad," "This dead cat is being prepared for the morgue." I miss Whiskers R We, as much as they ran that one.

I said last week that this one was gonna be amazing and I was right. November 5th is the last one before the election, and the host is...Benedict Cumberbatch?! Oh man, can't wait.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Galileo908

[opus]

Galileo908, not Veep. Veep's hysterical :)

Good SNL tonight.

[Galileo908]

I love Veep, but you know what I mean.

EDIT: Also, David Pumpkins and Kevin Roberts need to be in a sketch together. They would've also fit right in with the people in that Burger King sketch from last week.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Galileo908

[Dee]

Black Jeopardy was truly fantastic.

[SeanC]

The David Pumpkins skit was pretty much perfect, in my view.

Hanks is such a reliable comic presence (that's why they keep asking him back, after all).

I've seen some people complaining that Baldwin was just doing the opening sketches and then leaving.  I wonder if that influenced him doing another skit this week, or if he just wanted to work with Hanks.  I will, since the debates are over, I imagine the next few shows will find other ways to make use of his very strong Trump impression.  We've pretty much played out the debate format at this point.

[lou ann b]

For several reasons, I needed some joy tonight. And Tom Hanks/SNL didn't disappoint.

Cold Open:Tom as Chris Wallace was not something I knew I needed. And what can I say about Alec and Kate? I'm almost sorry the debates are over..notice I said almost.

Monologue: Just seeing Tom Hanks at home base made me smile. He could have just stood there for 3 minutes, but his "Fatherly talk" was so great.Made me think he's talked to his own kids that way.

Black Jeopardy:Missed Jay in this, but "Doug" was inspired. This sketch always has just enough edge to it, and "These Lives Matter" and Leslie and Sasheer's side eyes at Tom were funny.

Halloween show: Silly, but everyone played it with gusto and has Tom ever sung on SNL?

Broken:Why am I thinking some suit at CBS saw this and went:"Hmm. This could work"?

100 Floors of Flights: Hey, it's Bobby! Since Halloween is my least favorite holiday(just because I think it's lame), I just enjoyed Tom being...well..Tom. Loved his facial expressions.

WU:Jost and Che are just at the top of their game these days. I gotta say it-I love Leslie. She is who she is and not ashamed. Good for her. Girl You Wished,etc, etc..okay , but I'm kinda over it.

Sully:My favorite sketch tonight. Well, tied with another. "Brace for impact..just kidding"...heh. Loved it.

Girl's Halloween:Saw this happen more than once to friends in the Oregon District in Dayton, Ohio. But...meh.

America's Funniest Pets-My other favorite sketch tonight.  Those of us who LOVED Tom's Ron Howard imitation on David Letterman actually squealed with delight when this began. Loved it. And I'm guessing Mr Howard loved it too. "Okay..okay!" 

Oh ,and a musical guest with talent two weeks in a row-love me some Gaga.

Only complaint I have is except for the dancing skeleton and his appearance in the filmed bits=not enough Bobby, SNL!

[vb68]

And Tom Hanks shows you how it's done.  Truly one of the best hosts ever.  Even when the material isn't that great (like the Halloween song), he can sell the hell out of it.

The debate sketch was awesome again. Appreciated that they let Hanks play Chris Wallace.

Black Jeopardy will be considered a classic.  It was that good.

I thought the CBS parody was going after that show with Dianne Wiest and James Brolin that I can't remember the name of the top of my head. And Transparent, of course.

Been waiting awhile for that particular Leslie Jones commentary.  And it was worth it.  One of her very best in my opinion.

David S. Pumpkins is probably related to Kevin "can a bitch get a donut" Roberts.

Hey Alec stayed late for a sketch!

The Pets sketch really did just sorta stop instead of coming to an end.  Loved Tom going meta on Ron Howard.  "Love Tom Hanks, but what a pain."  Heh.

Don't stay away so long, Tom!  We need a 10 Timers Club monologue in a year or two!

Forgot to add that everytime I see her, I realize Gaga is so talented.  Her second performance was very moving.

Edited October 23, 2016 by vb68

[Bees]

Man was this such a strong episode. 

Cold Open: Unfortunately, I didn't hear all of this but what I heard was pretty damn funny. A very strong start. Though, I do sort of miss when Cold Opens weren't just only political sketches. But then again, that doesn't mean that it was a bad, just thinking of it. 

Monologue: Hey look, an actual monologue! Well regardless, I liked this a lot. Tom Hanks as America's Dad was just delightful. 

Black Jeopardy: The first three Black Jeopardies, I didn't really like as much because it felt like it just boiled down to "White People, amirite?!" humor, which I hate. This one is different because it's a hell of a political commentary how we're all not that different deep down. Also it was pretty funny how Kenan's character was so surprised and delighted about Doug getting the questions right. Just a smart and super funny sketch.

Halloween Show: This sketch had every opportunity to be cringe-inducingly bad but somehow it ended up succeeding. I think the moment that really sold it for me was the end when the other couples were like "THAT WAS AWESOME!" which I love those kind of misdirections. 

Broken: Oh man, this was totally spot on. I especially enjoyed the "The oldest daughter feeling everything around the house" And the whole desperateness of the announcer wanting to be invited back to award shows. Once again, juxtapositions are my favorite.

100 Floors of Frights: This weirdly reminds me of Kevin Roberts, but yet I don't mind so much. It was delightfully insane from the wackiness of David Pumpkins to the weirdly sexual dancing skeletons to the fact that he ended up scaring the guests. Also the reactions of Beck and Kate were great. Just the surreal goofiness of this made me laugh. 

Weekend Update: Damn good, again. I love this groove that Jost and Che have really gotten into. And Leslie Jones was just amazing. And of course, her blatant hitting on Colin thing is great too. And the self-righteous arrogance of Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With is so damn spot on these days, it's scary. 

Sully: Ehhhhh....the weakest sketch of the night but it wasn't entirely awful. There were some decent moments but all in all, it was just mediocre. 

A Girl's Halloween: I much enjoyed this. Once again, I love juxtapositional humor like the getting prepared to the aftermath. 

America's Funniest Pets: This was enjoyable but not as amusing as how my dog was reacting to the funny pets. She was barking and jumping up at all of them, especially the peeking cat. Though the commentary from the French ladies that I heard was great. 

As I said before, man was this a strong episode. Best episode of the year so far. SNL has been really bringing it this year. 

[whatsatool]

1.French cats

2.Black Jeopardy

3.Cold open

[Peace 47]

I'm in Manhattan this weekend, staying at a hotel a couple of blocks from 30 Rock, and a little part of me was sorry that I didn't do something crazy like camp out for tickets or whatever you have to do to get in because I'm a pretty huge Tom Hanks fan (I even really enjoy all these Da Vinci Code movies that people were noting upthread tend to get terrible reviews.)

That said, I didn't love the episode, although it was okay.  David Pumpkins reminded me of Kevin Roberts (the shooting range sketch with Larry David), but not as funny.  I didn't really get the Halloween/ Journey sketch.  Weekend Update seemed weak again this week after a hot streak that stretched from last season.

Black Jeopardy was excellent:  great social commentary on how simultaneously, there can be both negligible and insurmountable differences between different points on the political spectrum.  And Alec Baldwin was great in the debate sketch and had some great lines.  Maybe I was too hard on the show, reading everyone else's comments.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Peace 47

[Dev F]

19 minutes ago, Peace 47 said:

That said, I didn't love the episode, although it was okay.  David Pumpkins reminded me of Kevin Roberts (the shooting range sketch with Larry David), but not as funny.

Yeah, I had that feeling a couple times this episode. David Pumpkins was funny, but he mostly made me think about how he wasn't nearly as funny as Kevin Roberts. And America's Funniest Pets had the same well-executed premise as America's Funniest Cats in the Adam Driver episode, but that just reminded me of the original sketch's hilarious, absurd opening gag ("I'm Finn Reynolds, not Raynal-Beads! I don't know how many times I have to throw a fit about that. I confronted so many people, and everyone just points a finger at someone else. But someone is responsible -- that doesn't just happen!"), to which nothing in the new sketch can really hold a candle.

[ivygirl]

Tom Hanks as Chris Wallace really made the sketch for me. The debate (for me) was kind of meh, but "Chris's" reactions were gold.

[Delwyn]

I mean, obviously Tom Hanks has been studying with David T Cole to perfect his Dracula accent. I'm so proud. 

[Spartan Girl]

Tom Hanks, I love you. Never EVER leave us.

Other than the cold opening debate -- LMAO at Alec Baldwin using his Trump to call out his own brother -- the best skit was Black Jeopardy. Only Tom Hanks could make a racist Trump supporter charming. People aren't so different after all, eh?

The Sully skit was pretty funny too, and I liked that movie.

[Writing Wrongs]

Loved Black Jeopardy.

I was freaked out about how long that Pomeranian was walking on two legs.

[whatsatool]

I laughed hardest at Cats but the Black Jeopardy was brilliant. Like the all women shower one earlier this year. And the open was a solid B

[whatsatool]

I refer to the one with the mom haircut. That and  Black Jeopardy were cowbell worthy.

[Primetimer]

Less tricks, more treats for all tiiiiiiiime.

View the full article

[wknt3]

8 hours ago, SeanC said:

I've seen some people complaining that Baldwin was just doing the opening sketches and then leaving.  I wonder if that influenced him doing another skit this week, or if he just wanted to work with Hanks.  I will, since the debates are over, I imagine the next few shows will find other ways to make use of his very strong Trump impression.  We've pretty much played out the debate format at this point.

I'm sure that it was more the chance to work with Hanks in a funny sketch. I don't think Baldwin really cares about anyone's opinion but Lorne's and the industry's. And yes the debates are finally, mercifully, over so they will have to do something different. Of course it's always possible that Trump won't give them anything particularly juicy to work with and he won't have much air time...

[mtlchick]

Quote

I thought the CBS parody was going after that show with Dianne Wiest and James Brolin that I can't remember the name of the top of my head.

"Life in Pieces" which oddly enough stars Colin Hanks as one of the children.  

Black Jeopardy was AWESOME.  And the David Pumpkins was so surreal with a good payoff.  Surprisingly, I thought the Sully sketch fell flat.  (And I did see Sully in theaters and liked it for what it was worth.)  

Considering how Hanks is in real life with crashing a wedding photo shoot and announcing he found a lost student ID on Twitter, the monologue was perfect.  

[cpcathy]

This is why I adore Tom Hanks. Professional, committed, having fun, a master of everything he tries. If anything ever happens to him I will be in mourning, playing my Bosom Buddies DVDs on a loop.

[MerBearHou]

In all of my years of watching SNL, I thought Tom Hanks having a Dad-talk with America was one of the most creative, brilliant, perfect bits.  Poignant.  Tom Hanks belongs on Mt. Rushmore, IMO!

Lady Gaga is just deeply, uniquely talented -- wow.

I enjoyed the show this week -- some sketches stronger than others, but having Tom there and so committed and prepared just elevated everything.

I'm soooo ready to move on from politics.

Edited October 23, 2016 by MerBearHou

[vb68]

Cut for time.  Bruce Chandling brings out a friend during his Update bit.  I liked it, but I know Bruce is an acquired taste.

And because I'm old, I remember Samantha on Bewitched use to say "which witch is which" on occasion.      

[SimoneS]

Lesley Jones was outstanding taking down those racist trolls. She was hilarious.

Tom Hanks was pretty good. Black Jeopardy had me rolling. It will be a classic. Alec and Kate were outstanding as usual.

Edited October 23, 2016 by SimoneS

[cpcathy]

I wish they hadn't cut Bruce Chandling, it was a nice throw back to the standups sketch from the 90's with Tom, Damon Wayans and Jon Lovitz.

[VCRTracking]

A lot of hilarious Hillary Clinton from the late, great Jan Hooks, to Ana Gasteyer to Amy Poehler,Kate McKinnon has now surpassed them.

"With Trump you'll get an F, and America you deserve better than that. I can promise you a solid, stone cold B!"

Tom Hanks has always has had the best monologues: Being treated like Jesus as he walked around the studio because Newsweek called him the "Nicest guy in America", "dying" on stage and having an out-of-body experience, recreating Joe Pesci's "Do you think I'm funny?" scene from Goodfellas. All classics. And now he can add having a dad talk with America to the list.

The "Black Jeopardy" sketch might be the best one so far this season. Oddly hopeful, even with that great punchline.

Nothing to say about the Halloween sketch where the family does a song except Melissa Villasenor's real voice like a Nasim Pedrad character.

I prefer Larry David's "Kevin Roberts" to Hanks' "David Pumpkin" but I did jump at the end.

This might be the best Leslie Jones rant ever with the best line:"Real trolls ain't tapping on keyboards. They swinging shovels."

Liked the sketch where Hanks plays Sully until someone on Twitter mentioned it would have been better to see Jay Pharoah play Denzel Washington's character from Flight.

The "Girls' Halloween" sketch with Aidy, Cecily and Vanessa was hilarious! It's been years since I've had a Halloween night like that but the memories(what I could remember of them) still linger.

Loved seeing Cecily and Kate as the morbid French women doing voices for cat videos again.

The new "glitter cowgirl" look leaves me cold but I'm glad Gaga still does a number that reminds people she has a great voice.

Edited October 23, 2016 by VCRTracking

[peeayebee]

Agree about the perfection of Tom Hanks. A lot of the stuff wouldn't have worked if someone else were in his place. The only thing I really liked about the Halloween Block Party skit was Hanks. I still didn't think the skit worked, but he's just so darn likable that I enjoyed watching him.

The debate was awesome. I'm not tired of seeing Baldwin's Trump impression. He brings the inner ugliness to the orange face. I also love Kate's Hillary. Oh, and I noted all the other squares on Trump Bingo: n-word, slut, fatty fat fat, homo, dumps like a truck, oriental, uggo, maj uggo, r-word, f-word (gay), fairy, here's my penis, pound town, uh doi, lardo, oinker, lesbo, a real poopface.

Of course Hanks was excellent as Chris Wallace. Who woulda thunk it?

The monologue was great and actually very reassuring. Thanks, Tom Dad!

Black Jeopardy was really good. I loved the twist that conservative Doug would have a lot more in common with blacks than one would think.

The CBS "comedy" Broken was so well done. Loved it.

David Pumpkins. The ending made the whole skit. I certainly hope some people will dress as David Pumpkins for Halloween.

In WU, what was it that The Girl...Party said to Michael after she "Baaa'ed?" I loved the "American Horror Story: Debates" line.

Sully as co-pilot was a lot of fun. "Brace for impact just kidding" was perfect. I also thought it was a good choice to cut to the outside of the airplane after each interaction betw Sully and the pilot.

I absolutely LOVED A Girl's Halloween. Aidy was the best. My favorite part was when she walked thru the plate glass window.

America's Funniest Pets was ok. I hadn't seen Hanks do Ron Howard before, and I thought it was just ok. My favorite part was one of the French women saying, "Boom chicka meow meow."

[Princess Sparkle]

God, Tom Hanks is a national treasure. He is just such a pro at all of this. It may have been similar to Kevin Roberts, but David Pumpkins had me dying. I think it was only made better by Bobby and Mikey's dancing skeletons. That was also the sketch that made me think "Beck is now taking Taran's old straight man roles". 

A Girl's Halloween might have been my favorite sketch of the night though. I have had that Halloween night, including drunkenly eating pizza WAY too loudly. 

I got my Leslie Jones WU piece on trolls!! It was a small moment, but I loved when she said the crackhead from Friday had an hour of material on her feet and you could hear Michael laughing from the other side of the desk. 

Lady Gaga was wonderful. She has such a killer voice.  She and Bruno Mars were two great musical guests to have back to back. 

ETA: Almost forgot - seeing Alec Baldwin in the captain sketch, and at the goodbyes made me realize how good of a job they do in making him look orange and craggy when he's Trump, since Alec is still quite handsome.  

Edited October 23, 2016 by Princess Sparkle

[muffkins]

It is wonderful that you guys do these articles, but is there anyway that you can host versions of the video that will play in Canada? A lot of us up here want to see it too. I just can't seem to stay up late enough to watch them real time, but never get to see them on your site.

[futurechemist]

Overall it was a funny episode, with a couple of exceptions.  It's pretty rare for the host to show up in the opening segment right?  Was David Pumpkins based on a real singer?  Pretty much every skit before WU was solid.

I still want "drunk girl" to stay away from WU.  I know that's not the character's name, but her real name is too long and honestly Cecily plays her as drunk.  The joke was played out years ago.

The airplane was 1 of the worst sketches I've seen in a while.  A sketch centered around Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin should have been gold, but instead it turned into mocking Sully for being 2nd in command.  And also found time to mock soldiers.  Neither of which seemed like great comedy targets.

[laffytaffy997]

In the "Sully" sketch, I for sure thought Sully was going to do something to Alec Baldwin's character and then say "I'm the captain now"

[MisterGlass]

No...no...the music...it's stuck in my head...curse you David S. Pumpkins!

[vb68]

Ratings gold.   I wonder how much they retain after the elections.  Having fantastic hosts like Tom surely help.

[possibilities]

12 hours ago, Galileo908 said:

I miss Whiskers R We, as much as they ran that one.

Me, too!

1 hour ago, VCRTracking said:

Liked the sketch where Hanks plays Sully until someone on Twitter mentioned it would have been better to see Jay Pharoah play Denzel Washington's character from Flight.

What a great idea! Also, I didn't think they were mocking Sully so much as they were playing around with the weirdness of a hero having to take second place, and how absurd that is, from a certain point of view. It actually makes sense as a rule that you should log some hours before taking command again, but still-- it's a funny feeling. Alec's character just riding over the awkwardness as though it didn't exist, and the fake out of the passengers who wanted to meet a hero-- which turned out to be a soldier (any soldier) and they didn't know who Sully was, was also to me just a funny poke at the awkwardness of real life and celebrity. I didn't think it was an actual dig at Sully, but more of a gag about the absurdity of life and how hard it must be to resume normal life after a moment of glory.

Loved the show, overall. I have nothing against Tom Hanks, but he's not someone I have any particular fan feelings for, but I thought the writing and performances were good, and better than the average SNL. Maybe that comes from him, but I know they also had some changes in the writers' room, and I thought last week was terrific, too.

Leslie: I'm asking!

[potatoradio]

Thought Vanessa Bayer should have played "straight man" in David Pumpkins - she's better at that that Kate, IMO, and I love Kate in general.

Loved Leslie Jones on WU (comedy that still had a point), but I think Jost and Che have read their press clippings and are coming off a little smug to me. Agree that Girl needed to be done a while ago. She was funny the first time, but then they tried too hard.

Haven't ever seen Lady Gaga perform and I'm way late to the "wow, she's got a nice voice," but...she has a nice voice.

Tom Hanks will always make me want to go back and watch "Big" and "Castaway." I remember the hilarious skit SNL did after "Philadelphia" was released and they acted it out with action figures. It was a skit that pushed the boundaries, but I still remember it today. Thank god for no singing monologue and a good old fashioned talk from America's dad. That was a fabulous opening monologue. 

[BengalKitty]

I loved the French commentary:

This cat is waiting for dead beat daddy.  This cat is dead from drug overdose.  This cat is being prepared for the morgue.  

[DollEyes]

This season just keeps getting better and Tom Hanks is one of the reasons. His Chris Wallace almost stole the debate sketch from Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon-and that's saying something. Hanks' "America's Dad" pep talk ranks up there with Lin-Manuel Miranda's "My Shot" reboot as one of the best openings of the season.  Black Jeopardy was a trip. If Hanks' Doug and the other two contestants weren't almost complete political opposites, they could actually be friends. Best of all was Doug's answer "Not a damn thing!" to "What Skinny Girls Can Do For Me" & the ending where the host suggested playing the National Anthem "Just to see what the hell [would] happen."  Just the memory of David Pumpkins makes me smile.  Hanks even made the more meh-worthy sketches, like "America's Funniest Pets" work.  I liked the Sully sketch, but I thought it would have been funnier if the real Sully was one of the passengers. 

  The "Girl's Halloween" sketch was hilarious, puking and all. 

Along with The Weeknd and Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga is another musical genius with both talent and stage presence. 

Leslie Jones' putting her haters an blast was epic. 

56 minutes ago, laffytaffy997 said:

In the "Sully" sketch, I for sure thought Sully was going to do something to Alec Baldwin's character and then say "I'm the captain now"

That would have been priceless. 

[LuciaMia]

Quote

I'd love to see Mr. Short-Term Memory!

And I was hoping for some kind of shout-out to The Five-Timers Club. Wonder how many times Hanks has hosted now?

[HelenBaby]

26 minutes ago, LuciaMia said:

And I was hoping for some kind of shout-out to The Five-Timers Club. Wonder how many times Hanks has hosted now?

He said in the monologue that it was his 9th time as host.

[abstractstuff]

The "musical genius" of Lady Gaga is completely lost on me. I enjoyed the cold open and monologue and Black Jeopardy. The Halloween girls was more like a documentary. Laughed at the commenter above who mentioned The Oregon District in Dayton Ohio, *so true*  The rest was just there as usual. Nothing to do with Hanks though. 

[peeayebee]

2 hours ago, futurechemist said:

The airplane was 1 of the worst sketches I've seen in a while.  A sketch centered around Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin should have been gold, but instead it turned into mocking Sully for being 2nd in command.  And also found time to mock soldiers.  Neither of which seemed like great comedy targets.

I didn't see any mocking. I'm pretty sure Sully is a nice, decent, humble guy with a sense of humor. I can picture him sitting at home watching and laughing his head off. I also didn't see any mocking of soldiers, since it was only the jealous Sully who said anything negative.

Did anyone else imagine how quickly Hanks got out of his Chris Wallace getup in order to come out for the monologue? Actually, there was probably plenty of time since we don't see him as Trump and Hillary give their final words and then we see the opening credit sequence.

[Negritude]

14 hours ago, Bees said:

Black Jeopardy: The first three Black Jeopardies, I didn't really like as much because it felt like it just boiled down to "White People, amirite?!" humor, which I hate. This one is different because it's a hell of a political commentary how we're all not that different deep down. Also it was pretty funny how Kenan's character was so surprised and delighted about Doug getting the questions right. Just a smart and super funny sketch.

Broken: Oh man, this was totally spot on. I especially enjoyed the "The oldest daughter feeling everything around the house" And the whole desperateness of the announcer wanting to be invited back to award shows. Once again, juxtapositions are my favorite.

I'm surprised that more people aren't commenting on the Broken sketch. Watch her touch everything in the room for 30 gut busting minutes! I have Crohns disease! Lol. I didn't think it was a nod to Life in Pieces as that is actually a straight up comedy. I took it as more of a commentary on CBS shows in general not being Emmy faves and the shows that are considered comedies not being all that funny. OITNB, I'm looking at you.

Black Jeopardy won the night. I've been over the Black people do this and White people do that humor for a while now. It's lazy and particularly unfunny when done for predominantly white audiences. I loved how this wasn't so much a "We're more alike than we think" eureka moment (even though Keenan's reactions may have said otherwise) than showing how conservative alot of us (Black folks) actually are. Chris Rock has a bit about nobody being more racist than old Black men. Racial humor done with nuance on SNL, whod'a thunk it lol.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Negritude

[AdorkableSars]

3 hours ago, vb68 said:

Cut for time.  Bruce Chandling brings out a friend during his Update bit.  I liked it, but I know Bruce is an acquired taste.

And because I'm old, I remember Samantha on Bewitched use to say "which witch is which" on occasion.      

Aw man, I wish that didn't have to be cut. I thought that was hilarious! Tom Hanks makes everything great.

1 hour ago, potatoradio said:

Thought Vanessa Bayer should have played "straight man" in David Pumpkins - she's better at that that Kate, IMO, and I love Kate in general.

But Vanessa was super funny as the bride with the noose in that one! I thought it was kind of nice to see Kate play the "normal" character in most of the sketches. She's so versatile.

Last night's show was so, so, SO great. Tom Hanks is everything. I loved that he was Chris Wallace in the cold open. The monologue was fantastic.

I really liked the Halloween Show. "Don't Stop Believin'" is one of my favorite songs, and how they changed some lyrics to fit their show was hilarious to me. And the ridiculous love story/triangle in the middle, with Tom Hanks playing the virgin Dracula. And the snarky comments from the guests. I just laughed so hard at this. I think it was one of my faves of the night.

David S. Pumpkins was just silly enough to work. Bobby and Mikey (I think it was Mikey?) as the dancing skeletons was hilarious, and Tom Hanks and his crazy accent and movements as David S. Pumpkins cracked me up. I liked the payoff at the end too, of him just popping up behind Beck and Kate.

Weekend Update was OK tonight. Didn't enjoy it as much as I usually do, but Leslie Jones' part was great. She's so awesome. I appreciate that she's able to find humor in some of the horrible things that she's gone through lately. Laughter is the best medicine. 

"A Girl's Halloween" was hilarious. It reminded me of many nights out with friends that I've had, even when it's not Halloween. The girls being hot messes was hilarious.

Overall, a pretty great show. Lady Gaga's performances were great, and Tom Hanks is everything. 

[queenbee9b]

In the "Sully" sketch, I for sure thought Sully was going to do something to Alec Baldwin's character and then say "I'm the captain now"

Me too! It felt like such a missed opportunity!